Limo in deadly crash 'should have been in the scrapyard'

Speakers at a vigil in Amsterdam sought to console those grieving after a crash Oct. 6, 2018, killed 17 passengers, a driver and two bystanders.
Georgie Silvarole and Laura Nichols, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

The crashed limousine, left, was supposed to have been taken out of service after a Sept. 4 inspection.(Photo: Tom Heffernan Sr./via AP)

ALBANY - The condition of a stretch limousine that crashed Saturday and killed 20 people continues to draw intense scrutiny and a new round of questions about why it was even on the road.

Police are investigating the deadly crash, the worst in the U.S. in nine years, as a criminal investigation in large part because of repeated warnings and failed inspections of the 2001 Ford Excursion.

State inspectors affixed a sticker taking the vehicle out of service after a Sept. 4 inspection, according to the state Department of Transportation.

"The vehicle was subject to inspections and the owner was warned not to operate the vehicle," DOT spokesman Joseph Morrissey said in a statement. "The vehicle was placed out of service."

But the limousine continued to operate, and a lawyer for the limousine company said the vehicle recently underwent repairs.

Television networks broadcast at the roadside memorial scene of Saturday's fatal limousine crash in Schoharie, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 8, 2018. A limousine loaded with people headed to a birthday party blew a stop sign at the end of a highway and slammed into an SUV parked outside a store, killing all people in the limo and a few pedestrians, officials and relatives of the victims said.(Photo: Hans Pennink, AP)

The limousine, though, had long appeared to be unsafe, according to records and interviews.

"After my experience going inside, the thing should have been in the scrapyard," Andrew LaRose, an Albany-area man who hired the limousine for his wedding a year ago, told WNYT-TV in Albany.

He said the air conditioning didn't work when the limo showed up on his wedding day, and duct tape on the vehicle was painted white.

Meanwhile, the limousine's driver had been stopped by a state trooper in Saratoga Springs in late August after he had driven 11 people in the same vehicle and cited for operating it without a proper license, the Times Union in Albany reported Tuesday.

"I get New York has some interest in shifting the focus to Prestige and its driver and its owners, but that's why I'll say it until I'm blue in the face: This is a big, complex investigation," Kindlon said Tuesday.

"Nobody has come to any conclusions, and we look forward to the investigation taking place."

It appears the company, in fact, was trying to sell the old limousine.

TheTimes Union reported that just two days before the Schoharie crash, Prestige Limo listed it for sale on Craigslist for $9,000 — with the contact information matching numbers of businesses owned by Shahed Hussain.

The listing said the limo was "very clean inside and out" and "DOT ready" with 180,000 miles.